I love the seasons.  For me, I see the wisdom of God every time there is a change of season.  Like it says in Ecclesiastes, there is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.

It’s one of the things that attracted me to New Zealand when we were considering where we could move to.  This country has seasons, sometimes all four in one day.

We’re coming out of Summer and into Autumn over here and when you live in the “Garden City” this becomes a true celebration of colour.  Our road is tree lined so it’s lovely walking underneath a canopy of reds and oranges for a month or so.

Yes for all my UK friends, Easter is in Autumn – weird?!?

I don’t have a favourite season.  Gareth gets practically euphoric when Spring comes with the long days and the promise of Summer soon approaching and my friend Jan named her business after her favourite season, Autumn.  I appreciate both of these and I also love the warmth and holiday feeling of Summer and the crispness of a frosty Winter and the need to wear lots of jumpers and scarves.

We’ve just had a hot weekend and it was like Summer revisiting – I did three washing loads in one day which brings me so much joy.  But at the same time I almost felt annoyed by the heat, like I’ve had enough of you already, I don’t want to have to shave my legs so much and we’re done with the sunscreen rituals!

OK so we might miss the ice cream.

What I like so much about the seasons is that they come just when you need things to change, they are timely.  Each one is part of the bigger picture, a calendar year.  Each season is important and has a purpose.  Some feel harder and take more than they give, others remind you that life is full of blessings and joy.  I know there are parts of the world where the seasons are not so different and honestly, I don’t know if I could live where it was always Summer or always Winter – I think I would get depressed living where it’s hot or cold all the time.

I love change, movement, beginnings and ends.

Thinking about that this week, whilst I am in this curious season of finding my own purpose, I realise that for me one of the biggest challenges in my life has often been to be in the middle of a season, away from the change of a beginning or an end.

A quiet Winter beach.

I’m searching for answers at the moment and I want them to come now, but I know this is a season that is important.  I don’t want to rush out of it and push myself into the next one prematurely.  I want to experience this season and all that it has for me.  I want to learn the lessons this season has for me, because the next season is always much better when you have got everything you can out of the previous one.

I have no clear answers to my questions of purpose yet.  I expect that not all of them will be answered in this season but I hope some will and unlike the seasons of the year or the tides of the sea there is no set time when the new season will come.  It could be next week, it could be next year.

There is no point me rushing to get to the next part, I need to get all I can out of this part, my now.  And if I get impatient for change I can always walk to the beach and watch the tides come and go or look up and see the leaves fall from the trees.  They remind me that every season of my life so far has come to an end at some point.  I finally graduated, Gareth and I did get married, we sold the house I hated so much, my babies came, the perm grew out and Bryan Adams didn’t stay at Number One forever.

Just like Spring, which seems so far away for us now, new beginnings will come, things will blossom and the days will get brighter.